The Imperative for Dramatic Conflict
May 14, 2024
A director told me once that if you put two actors together in a scene without directing them or staging the scene,
Story Structure
Most popular posts
Most of our everyday speech happens in dialogue — in conversations. You might talk to yourself from time to time,...
What is a story without a plot? Not much! A plot is the sequence of events that helps give a...
Understanding when and how to use active vs passive voice isn’t just a matter of grammar; it’s a matter of...
The words “book” and “novel” are sometimes used interchangeably. But they actually mean different things. In this article, I’ll describe...
The diction you use in your writing is a choice you’re always making, whether subconsciously or not. Writers trade in...
Creating tone in your writing provides a texture to the work. It’s the emotional coloring that shapes how a reader...
Rising action refers to the series of events that lead from a story’s inciting incident to the climax. In this...
With storytelling, if your reader isn’t engaged within the first few chapters, you run the risk of losing their attention....
What happens after a story’s climactic moment? What comes after the protagonist wins the girl, or defeats the bully, or...
At the heart of every story lies a dilemma. It is not a question of whether or not your protagonist...
Story is always a journey of self-discovery “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates Embarking on a creative...
Theme is a way of making a series of events which are personal to the protagonist universally relatable to a...
Finding Home
May 12, 2024
“Home is where one starts from.” – T. S. Eliot There’s nothing more primal than our quest for home. The dilemma is
Story is an Argument
April 23, 2024
(Image from “Big” 1988) Story is an argument. The theme (or dramatic question) is the thesis statement, and the story is the
What Does it Mean?
February 2, 2024
Everyone has a story. It takes courage to tell it, be it memoir or fiction, because there comes a point where we
Exploring Your Protagonist’s Dilemma
December 11, 2023
(Image from The Hunger Games, 2012) “The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and
Plot versus Theme
October 20, 2023
Any writer can experience that moment where you suddenly realize that your “idea” of the story isn’t going to get you to
The Nature of the “Want”
November 5, 2021
“To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” – Isaac Newton While exploring the nature of the “want” in your
How Do You Identify the Dilemma in Your Story?
October 15, 2021
At the heart of every story lies a dilemma from which all tensions and conflicts arise. How do you identify the dilemma
The End of the Story Informs the Beginning
June 18, 2021
In Steven Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he states: “Begin with the end in mind.” For first-time writers,
Writing Act Three: Our Hero Accepts the Reality of Their Situation
May 21, 2021
It can be frightening and exhilarating to realize that our story is bigger than we are, that in fact, it does not
Story Structure as an Experiential Model
August 7, 2020
There is a structure to the universe. From the smallest atom to the forces that move the planets, there is a universal
Story Structure
May 6, 2020
Story structure is often taught by story analysts as plot, but it is really the DNA of our protagonist’s internal journey to
